All things must come to an end, much like an airplane that takes off, it eventually has to land...

Hey there everyone,

This is Eric here from the FSBreak podcast, and I wanted to address everyone who has missed us over these past few months...

To answer the question... Where is Episode 123? At this point I'd be conformable saying that at this point the podcast is on an extended hiatus... Over the past few months I've needed to shift a lot of my free time towards other things, which have worked out for the best, and opened some new opportunities for me personally.

I've been told by folks that FSBreak can "never" end because it is one of many pillars of the FS community, it is something that legitimizes our hobby and our community, and I appreciate so many people for thinking of us in that way, and listening and supporting the show.

When we started FSBreak back in January of 2009 it was really unfortunate timing, as the very first episode of FSBreak was covering the ACES studio closure and what came to be the cancellation of "FS11". At that time, I honestly gave the show 5 episodes until we'd stop doing it, and the only reason I continued on was because I had already purchased the equipment needed, and the domain names, built up the website, logos, etc. :-)

...But, something clicked as the co-hosts and I continued to do the show. Even though the show was really rough, we got thousands of downloads, hundreds of positive comments, and I felt as though we were accepted and supported by the awesome community right off the bat. The show really started to be fun to do.

I can't do everything alone though. While I could do the technical part, and the logistical part of the show, I know that I don't know everything related to Flight Sim and Aviation in general. I want to thank the awesome people within our community who have been with us over these past four years in helping me host the show, specifically Cameron Son (Who volunteered to be on the first ever episode), Nolan Welch, Brendan Farmer, Mark Stewart, Danton Berube, Chris Palmer, and Nick Collett. All of these folks have volunteered literally hundreds of hours each to the community in order to offer their insights into Flight Sim and Aviation. With the exception of Danton, I have personally never met with any of these folks in real life, and it goes to show what is possible in this community, in these times.

In addition to the hosts and the listeners, I also need to thank all of the developers and vendors who have spent time with us over these years. Because of their work, everyone in the community can continue doing what we love. The first interview that we did was actually Episode 22, where we spoke with Austin Meyer. Credit where credit is due, this interview was fully set up by Mark Stewart, who just happened to randomly call me a day or so before the episode to tell me that he just called the phone number on the back of the X-Plane box, and asked if Austin would be interested in being interviewed on the podcast. Previous to that, to be honest, I was nervous about talking to other people that I didn't already know. (And to be even more honest, before I really got into the show, I was a very shy person in general.) But because of these interviews, it completely changed the direction that the show went into.

So... What does this all mean? At this point, I (Eric) am personally going to lessen my involvement in FSBreak. This is my own decision, and not neccisarly the feelings of the others involved in the show. I'm definitely going to miss meeting together every week or so with what I now consider my close friends (And a few thousand of my other friends ;-) ). And while my personal interest in the hobby has faded a little bit over these past few months, this community is the best I've seen in this world, and I do want to continue to be a part of it. I plan on spending the free time that I do have most likely hanging out in the Digital Theme Park community, which we've talked about in recent episodes. If you're looking to meet people who are really moving and shaking this community, check out DTP.

What does this mean for the community? Well, I hope that someone else out there is able to "carry the torch" with their own work, and I know that based advances that I have seen over these past four years to a PC Simulator that was already going on three years old, this community is resilient, creative, and best of all welcoming. I'm really starting to see the community rebuild itself to stronger than it used to be after the ACES blow, and in the US we've started to see the re-emergence of Flight Sim conferences such as FlightSimCon and Avsim's FANCON event happening in a few days.

FSBreak has been literally a life changing experience, and it has personally made me into a better, happier, more knowledgable, more markatable, and more sociable person, and I don't know where I would be today if not for FSBreak and all of the great fans who have supported both the show, and the people involved in the show over these past four years. Thank you, everyone!

I will continue to be reachable via email and the contact link near the top of the site. Many times we have worked to connect developers and community members together and I do want that to continue. Please feel free to contact me anytime at me@ericmcclintock.com, all of the other addresses you have used in the past will continue to work as well.

The technical bits:

The FSBreak website and podcasts will continue to live on and be made available. We may switch servers but either way it will live on.

The Youtube, Facebook Page, etc will continue to stay up, and I'll try my best to stay connected to them.

The email addresses will continue to work just fine.

The voicemail line will continue to accept calls, but won't be monitored.

Eric's Skype account has never been a reliable way to get in touch, please email me!

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be releasing all of the video episodes as separate RSS feeds for easy download. I have had this on my list for (literally) a year, but haven't had the time to do it.